Media Release (update)

Big Island police are warning the public to beware of potentially dangerous prescription drugs that were stolen in a pharmacy robbery and have not been legally dispensed.

South Kohala patrol units were dispatched to a pharmacy on Kawaihae Road on Friday (May 21) in response to a reported robbery involving a man armed with a knife. The man reportedly entered the pharmacy and demanded Fentynyl and Oxycontin. After the pharmacist told him that the establishment did not carry those drugs, the suspect opened a drawer and removed numerous controlled substances.

He fled on foot in the direction of the Nature Park and Carter Professional Center. He had a cloth covering his nose and mouth and was wearing a hooded shirt, camouflage pants, slippers and latex gloves.

Police investigation led to the name of a suspect. Officers arrested the suspect’s wife, 34-year-old Rochelle Freitas of Kamuela, who had been inside the pharmacy attempting to fill a prescription minutes before the robbery.

While officers were searching for her husband, police received a 911 call reporting a man with a gunshot wound at a residence later determined to be the Freitas home. Responding officers found the victim dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

An autopsy has been scheduled for Monday (May 24) to determine the man’s identity and the exact cause of his death.

Rochelle Freitas has been released while detectives from the Area II Criminal Investigations Section continue the investigation.